


Small Acts

by brevityis



Category: Leverage
Genre: Episode: s03e04 The Scheherazade Job, Established Relationship, Friends With Benefits, Kink Negotiation, Light BDSM, Light Bondage, M/M, Nate likes to be in charge and sometimes eliot lets him, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, i mean there's a little plot but it's mostly porn, we're talking poking-of-bruises level light for the most part
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:15:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25026034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brevityis/pseuds/brevityis
Summary: After his conversation with Ms. Akeyami at the end of The Scheherazade Job, Eliot needs to blow off some steam. And Nate? Nate's curious.
Relationships: Nathan Ford/Eliot Spencer
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	Small Acts

**Author's Note:**

> Hoo boy, it's been a solid six years since I last wrote and posted a new work. And this is my first time ever posting smut. But I ripped through writing this in a day thanks to excellent cheerleading and beta reading from [ Pushingcrazies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pushingcrazies/pseuds/pushingcrazies). A million thank-yous. Any errors that have survived that process are my own doing.

Nate’s eyes scanned Eliot as Eliot barged into Nate’s apartment. “I take it things with Ms. Akinyemi didn’t go well?” he asked, casually adjusting the sleeves of his suit jacket. 

Eliot growled at him. A somewhat quieter, sulkier growl than the usual. 

“Ah.” Nate grabbed a second glass off the kitchen counter and poured Eliot a beer without saying another word. He walked over to hand it to Eliot with a faint smile, trailing his fingers very deliberately over Eliot’s on the handoff. Blue eyes met his own. Nate’s smile quirked a little higher, raising an eyebrow slightly. 

“Hell yes.” Eliot muttered, taking a swallow of beer and setting it on the tabletop without regard for the way the condensation formed a ring on the wood. Nate wondered what Ms. Akinyemi had said to get him in this kind of mood. When Nate had left the bar earlier, Eliot had been practically glowing, pink-cheeked and happy in a way he wasn’t often. Now this. Eliot went so far as to grab Nate’s arm and all but shove him towards the stairs. Nate’s brain ticked over on the possibilities even as he stumbled up the metal steps, a little off-balance from the chivvying of the man behind him. 

Most people would assume a pushy Eliot was an Eliot looking to take control. Nate knew better. When they hit Nate’s bedroom, Eliot shoved him up against the door with a brutal kiss, and Nate could feel the hard strength in his grip, the subtle shake in his hands. So Nate shoved back, grabbing Eliot’s biceps, biting Eliot’s lower lip and sliding a leg between Eliot’s to press his thigh right up against Eliot’s groin. The fact that Eliot let him do it said a lot. About trust, yes, but also about what he needed from Nate. Nate broke the kiss with a gasp and a grin. “Lose the clothes.” It could read as a suggestion or an order, but Eliot responded to it like it was the latter, growling again and starting to strip out of his jacket and fingerless gloves. The growl was happier this time, at least. 

Mid-removal of clothing, Eliot finally spoke. “You promised to take me apart later.” 

“That I did.” 

“It’s later.” 

“I thought you wanted me to give you an in with the reporter. Things go that badly?” 

“Does it matter?” Eliot complained, dropping to sit on the edge of the bed in the nude, though he did make a fast check on his knife in the bedside table. 

“No, I suppose not.” Nate agreed, undoing the top buttons on his own shirt and moving between Eliot’s thighs, forcing the hitter to spread them or crush Nate’s clothed legs between them. God, Eliot had gorgeous thighs. Nate threaded a hand through Eliot’s hair, tugging it back and forcing Eliot to look up at him as Nate’s other hand settled on Eliot’s shoulder. Nate’s lips quirked at him. Neither of them was hard yet, but that was easily fixed. The sight of Eliot looking up at him like this, the patchwork of bruises that littered Eliot’s body like constellations from their jobs, it was a sense of leashed power that really went to the head. Nate kissed Eliot, far gentler than his grip on Eliot’s hair would have suggested. Nate’s other hand worked its way lower on Eliot’s body, stroking over his chest until he found a patch of too-warm, taut skin against the muscle. Then he pressed down on that bruise, lightly, and enjoyed the flinch and the hiss. Eliot could take a lot more damage than this, but the fact that he reacted proved it was hardly harming him. Especially not when Nate could feel the heat rising in Eliot’s face as Nate’s hand continued onward, resuming its stroking until he found a nipple to tweak. This time the muffled sound against his lips was a moan. Eliot must be needy tonight. 

Drawing back from the kiss, Nate tugged on Eliot’s hair one last time. “Get into the middle of the bed, arms out.” He ordered lightly. Eliot would know what it meant.

“Bondage, really? You know I won’t move.” Eliot groused, but did what Nate had told him anyway. 

“I know you won’t, but sometimes I like the visual.” Nate’s voice had a dry, wry humor in it as he pulled the padded leather cuffs up from under the bed, first the left, then the right. He left Eliot’s legs free, knowing full well that was all Eliot would need to kill him, if he so chose. The danger was part of the fun.

“Whatever, man.” Eliot replied, but his voice was already evening out, getting a little quieter and less rough around the edges. Yes, Nate liked the visual of Eliot in bondage, but what he really liked was the fact that Eliot trusted him with this. That instead of amping up when Nate tied him up, the way he would if someone had captured him on a job, Eliot slowed down, settled in. 

“Good.” Nate praised him, shuffling onto the bed on his knees. He left his own clothes on, for now, knowing it helped set the scene for Eliot sometimes. “You got anything against me opening you up tonight?” he asked, just to be sure. 

“Hell no.” It was still softer than usual. “Go for it. And don’t be gentle.” Eliot drew his feet up to plant them on the bed, wide apart for Nate’s easy access to his ass. More pieces fell into place. 

Nate ran his left hand down over Eliot’s chest again, pressing into every bruise along the way, testing. Even the large one over the fourth rib. He went easier there, just enough to ensure Eliot felt it. Eliot’s face scrunched under each one, but some of the singing tension was leaving his shoulders even as it did. Nate’s right hand trailed over Eliot’s skin in the wake of his left, but this time his touch was gentle, almost ticklishly light. Eliot squirmed at the contrast, and Nate’s private smile grew as he watched Eliot’s cock harden between his thighs. Nate brought both hands down to Eliot’s thighs, the left gripping hard even as the right brought those tingly-light up the muscle to Eliot’s groin, to tease over the erection growing there. 

“Dammit, Nate, just fuck me already,” Eliot growled. Very impatient tonight, then. 

“That’s not what we agreed. We agreed I’d take you apart. We don’t get that from a fast fuck, now do we?” Nate reprimanded lightly, closing his hand around Eliot’s cock and squeezing _just_ hard enough to hurt. When Eliot dug his feet into the bed to shove up and away, Nate let go and pressed both hands flat on Eliot’s thighs to unbend his knees until he was flat-out on the bed. “Do you want to renegotiate?” 

“No.” Eliot grumbled, subsiding once more into passivity. Nate released his thighs and leant down to kiss him gently as a reward. 

“Good. Now settle in and relax.” Nate shucked off his black suit jacket, as the room was getting unaccountably warm. Eliot was feeling it too, if the pink of his cheeks underneath the bruise on one of them was anything to go by. 

Nate resumed his attentions, alternating teasingly light touches over Eliot’s body with firm pressure on his bruises, testing Eliot’s responses and watching closely for the point when it went from enjoyably painful to something to be endured. They never got close, tonight, as Eliot arched under his hands and writhed the way the bondage gave him license to do. Finally, when they’d both begun to sweat, and when Eliot’s eyes had closed, Nate ran a gentle hand down Eliot’s flank before leaning over to the bedside table - the one without the knife in it. He fished out a condom and lube. The condom he dropped on Eliot’s firm stomach, which caused Eliot’s skin to twitch and his eyes to open. He was drifting now, the normally warm and sharp blue of his eyes hazy and uncalculating. 

“ _Now_ you put your feet up,” Nate directed, smiling when Eliot did as he was told, planting his feet flat on the bed once more and tipping his hips up to give Nate access to his ass. “Good.” Eliot smiled at the praise, closing his eyes again, though a little furrow had formed between his brows. Hm. Nate noted it, and dragged blunt nails down Eliot’s thigh from his knee towards his ass. The furrow smoothed out. Nate’s lips quirked upwards again. 

Nate popped the cap on the lube and squirted some onto the fingers of his left hand. He didn’t bother to wait for it to warm up, first giving a firm stroke to Eliot’s cock, just the right side of too hard. Eliot’s mouth dropped open into a pant, the furrow gone as his hips arched to chase the feeling. 

More lube on his fingers, and this time he pressed the cold slipperiness directly against the tight furl of Eliot’s hole. Eliot’s hips jerked again, this time away, but Nate pressed his right hand down hard on Eliot’s hipbone to hold him in place. A reminder, more than anything, because it would do nothing if Eliot didn’t choose to let it. 

Eliot’s thighs relaxed again, and Nate stroked his right hand up and down against the left one, enjoying the soft drag of fine hairs against his palm. He circled the middle finger of his left hand against Eliot’s rim until he felt Eliot pushing back, saw his mouth close and purse as he prepared to say something. Rather than let him, Nate instead pressed that finger inside, slow and inexorable as his right gripped Eliot’s thigh hard. Again, Eliot’s mouth slackened, and Nate spent some time working him open before ever bringing his finger near Eliot’s prostate.

“So what did she say?” Nate asked, casually, when Eliot’s hips were chasing his finger, trying to get Nate to press where Eliot wanted it. 

“What?” Eliot asked, slow and sleepy the way he tended to get when Nate worked him over thoroughly. With Eliot, violence wasn’t the key to taking him apart. No, no. The tenderness did that much more effectively, but Eliot couldn’t be allowed to know Nate knew that.

“What did she say that had you coming up here to me so early? I wasn’t expecting you until after closing time.” Nate kept his voice light and easy as he slid a second finger inside, letting Eliot lose himself in the burn. 

"What...It was nothing.” Eliot’s voice was becoming a little more self-aware now, so Nate curled his fingers to brush them ever-so-gently across Eliot’s prostate, reaching his right hand across to hoist Eliot’s right leg over his clothed shoulder. It put one of those powerful thighs perilously close to his neck, but it relaxed Eliot and gave Nate a better angle all at once. 

Nate gave him a little while in silence, working him open with two fingers and teasing against Eliot’s prostate every so often. It wasn’t neuro-linguistic programming, but Eliot seemed to respond to this too, hips hitching in tiny little motions as he tried to get Nate to press harder.

“She just… Ripple effects.” Eliot looked pained again, unhappy to be talking about this. “Would you fuck me already?” It wasn’t the sharp demand of earlier, but rather a sad little request. Nate lifted his right hand and used it to support himself as he leant in to press a kiss to Eliot’s lips, curling his fingers harder this time as a reward. It bent Eliot almost in half, but the muffled groan against his mouth said that was anything but a hardship.

“Of course.” It wasn’t a complete answer, but Nate could put the pieces together. Ripple effects, and how actions built on other actions, would have a vastly different meaning to a man with Eliot’s past than it would to a civilian like Ms. Akinyemi. She saw only the good, only the now. Eliot? Would have been thinking of the past. Another tumbler clicked in the lock that was Eliot Spencer, and Nate filed the information away for later. 

Objective achieved, Nate worked a third finger into Eliot’s ass despite his promise to fuck Eliot already, though he kept it brief in deference to what Eliot had already said he wanted. Nate knelt back again, letting Eliot’s thigh help him back to upright, and began unbuttoning his shirt one-handed. Now that he really let himself take in the desperate picture that Eliot made below him, Nate’s trousers felt more than a little tight. So he unbuttoned those too, before sliding the fingers of his left hand out of Eliot’s ass and wiping them on the sheets. He lowered Eliot’s leg gently to the bed again before standing and stripping out of his clothes, aiming them vaguely into a heap with his suit jacket at the side of the bed. 

Eliot had opened his eyes again, watching Nate indolently with heat in his gaze. Nate raised his eyebrows at Eliot as he crawled back on the bed, pleased to see Eliot smile back at him despite Nate’s impromptu interrogation. It had taken work to get here, to where Eliot trusted Nate to tie his hands and open him up slow while Eliot floated, but the rewards were more than worth it. All that leashed power at Nate’s command? Or, alternately, all that strength pressing Nate down until Nate didn’t have to _think_ anymore? Very worth the effort. 

Nate kissed Eliot again for his patience, fisting a hand in Eliot’s hair and pulling hard as he bit at Eliot’s lips, taking what they both wanted from the encounter. Then he climbed between Eliot’s thighs again, sitting back on his heels and grabbing the condom. Eliot’s hungry gaze burned into him, making his hands tremble a little as he tore the condom open, tested it, and unrolled it carefully over his dick. Sweat ran down Nate’s back as he pumped extra lube from the bottle and spread it over the condom. He bit his lower lip in enjoyment, before letting go. Nate shuffled closer on his knees, grabbing Eliot’s ankle to pull Eliot’s right leg back over Nate’s shoulder. 

Eliot wrapped his right leg around Nate’s waist, urging him closer. Nate made and held eye contact after he lined himself up, watching Eliot’s face for the right moment, for the tiniest little nod. With a tiny nod of his own, Nate pressed forward, leaning into Eliot’s thigh for extra support as he pushed home. At the heat and tightness surrounding him, Nate hissed and closed his eyes. Eliot groaned, tensing around him. The preparation really had been less than enough, but Eliot’s dick was also still hard and leaking against his stomach so, on par, Nate wagered it was just what Eliot needed tonight.

When Nate felt like he’d had a minute to get a grip on himself, he drew his hips back and then pressed forward again, beginning a slow and steady rhythm that felt criminally good. He brought his right hand up from the sheets to grip Eliot’s cock instead, pumping it in a smooth, fast rhythm interspersed with a few twists of his wrist and swipes of his thumb over the sensitive head. His left found a bruise on Eliot’s ribs, a fading one, and pressed hard against it for ‘support.'

By the way Eliot’s breathing sped, the way he groaned and started to tremble, Nate knew he’d hit on the right combination. His own eyes felt like they were trying to cross, but he stifled that by turning his head to bite at the inside of Eliot’s thigh where it neared his head, leaning further forward still as Eliot’s left leg joined his right over Nate’s shoulders, changing the angle to one that had Eliot giving off little sounds on each hitching breath. Nate kept that slow pace of his hips and quick one of the wrist until he heard the familiar silence of Eliot holding his breath as he neared climax.

Then he stopped. Everything. Slid his hand to the bed from Eliot’s ribs and let go of his dick, forcing his teeth to release from Eliot’s thigh.

Eliot’s breath exploded out of him in a rush and he whined, thumping his head back against the bed. “ _Nate_ ,” he begged, though it sounded more like a demand. Nate had learned to tell the difference. 

Nate grinned fiercely against Eliot’s thigh, because he could. Eliot made no moves to choke him out for it, and it only spiked Nate’s arousal to see Eliot desperate and growling from being denied so close to the edge. “Mm, yes?” he asked mildly, though there was a breathless quality that never would have flown on a con.

“Fuck me.” It came out as a growl as Eliot glared at him, ground down against his hips and tried to fuck himself on Nate’s cock. It was made much harder by their positions, though for Eliot nothing was impossible. “Make me cum, dammit.” Eliot’s begging sounded awfully like threats, but that didn’t bother Nate much.

In other circumstances, Nate’s smile would have been angelic. Here, it just seemed unholy. “Patience is a virtue,” he pointed out, and got a growl in return. “I haven’t heard a please.” 

“Are you seri- I’m gonna remember this when it’s my turn!” Eliot groused, but he looked so turned on Nate was hardly worried. Nate had promised to take him apart; really, Eliot should have expected a little edging. Turnabout was more than fair play. When Eliot’s hitching hips couldn’t get him the friction or force he wanted, Eliot growled again, a more desperate sound. “Fuck, please! Okay? Please.” 

Nate kissed the bruise he’d bitten into Eliot’s right thigh, leaning forward until Eliot was all but bent in half to get an even better angle on Eliot’s prostate. This time, he drove his hips harder, faster, enjoying the little punched-out noises Eliot made each time Nate managed to hit his prostate. His left hand found Eliot’s dick again, although this time he moved his wrist with less finesse, less calculation. Nate was able to pepper bites over Eliot’s shoulder this time, revelling in the way Eliot shook against him.

The next time he heard that telltale silence, Nate didn’t stop. He let Eliot go tumbling off the edge of orgasm and stroked him through it, until Eliot bucked and whined and _thrashed_ against him in oversensitivity. Then he let go of Eliot’s dick, locking his hands into the sheets instead as he lifted his head to look at Eliot’s flushed face and listened to the labored breathing _he’d_ caused. With that view, it didn’t take much longer for Nate to drive to a fierce, groaning release, one that left him panting and shaking and reliant on Eliot’s muscular thighs to help hold him up.

Huffing, Nate sat back on his heels and held the condom at the base as he slid out, letting Eliot’s legs fall into a loose sprawl on either side of him. Eliot still looked like he was floating, hazy blue eyes barely watching Nate as Nate tied the condom off and leaned over to drop it in the trash can beside the bed. That done, Nate reached up to unclip the carabiners on the cuffs at Eliot’s wrists and flopped down beside him. Letting his eyes close, he took one of Eliot’s wrists in both hands and undid the leather buckles on the cuffs by feel. He let the cuff fall from his hand to the sheets, and heard a muffled thump as it rolled to hit the floor. Still drifting from the orgasm, he stroked his thumb over Eliot’s wrist where the cuff had been. Feeling no undue marks, he patted it and set it down on Eliot’s thigh. He reached out blindly for Eliot’s other wrist. Eliot must have been watching, because Nate found it faster than he expected, in the air over Eliot’s stomach. Rolling to his side, he brought both hands to bear on this cuff as well, dropping it and letting it roll to the bed on Eliot’s side. There was no second thump, so it must be lost in the sheets somewhere. After carefully rubbing out the second wrist, Nate brought Eliot’s hand up and pressed a sleepy kiss to the knuckles, before setting that hand down too. It was worth it for the noise Eliot made, a little helpless whimper. That done, Nate let his upper hand fall to Eliot’s chest, taking a few minutes to drift and breathe.

It was Eliot who came back to himself first. He poked Nate, hard, in the side. “Don’t do that to me.” 

Nate startled, opening his eyes as he flinched away from the sudden pain. “Don’t do what? I seem to recall you asked me to. Demanded, really.” 

Eliot scowled. “Not the sex. The fishing. Don’t… fish for information when we’re fucking. That’s just uncalled for. And rude.” Eliot shoved his hair out of his face irritably, shifting his legs in the sheets. “You just don’t do it.” 

“Oh. That.” Nate sighed. “I didn’t think you minded. It was only a little fishing. Besides, I helped set it up. I wanted to know what went wrong.” 

Eliot’s scowl stayed. “Yeah, well, you don’t always need to know everything. We’re entitled to a little privacy.” 

“Of course, of course.” 

“Don’t placate me.” 

Nate sighed again. “I’d kind of hoped I’d fucked you out of your bad mood, but I can see now I didn’t. Sorry. I wanted to know why you were upset, in case it was anything I needed to help with.”

Eliot didn’t seem to buy it entirely. “Yeah, well, sometimes you can help more by trusting me to handle things. You can do it on a job, you can do it in our personal lives as well. I would have been fine if you’d just fucked me and kept your mouth shut.” 

“Come on, Eliot, does that sound like something I can do?” Nate laughed quietly, raising his eyebrows. 

Eliot frowned and sat up all the way even though it had to burn a little. “It sounds like something you’d better learn how to do if you want to keep this arrangement going,” he warned. 

Some of Nate’s joviality fell aside. “Alright. Alright. I’m sorry. Your personal life is your own business, even when I wingman. I’ll stay out of it,” he agreed, leaning up on an elbow. 

“Thank you.” Eliot crossed his arms over his chest, and Nate finally sat all the way up. 

“How are you feeling? I didn’t bruise anything too badly, did I?” Nate asked. 

Eliot huffed quietly. “Are you kidding? You barely tickled.” Still, Eliot let Nate brush his hair off his shoulders to inspect them for any place teeth might have broken the skin. There were a few little bruises here and there, but nothing even Nate would flinch at. Eliot was a little less gracious about letting Nate inspect the side of his thigh for injuries there, but still it was only a bruise. That one, Nate wouldn’t have wanted for himself, but Eliot barely seemed to mind. Didn’t mind at all, if the small smile on Eliot’s lips as he brushed a hand over the site was anything to go by. 

“Staying the night anyway?” Nate offered, raising his eyebrows at Eliot. 

Eliot frowned, then shrugged. “Fine. But I’m not making you breakfast in the morning.” 

“That’s fine.” Nate agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> There is a prequel to this in the works, that shows how the two of them even embarked on their FWB setup in the first place. In that one, Eliot takes the lead. As it's a first time, however, their play is much lighter in that.


End file.
